control’s pitch determines the melodic foundation for your sonic wall of doom. The Wide
oscillator has a much wider pitch range. The
minimum pitch is about 5 Hz. At this setting,
you’ll hear the square wave clicking on and off
about five times every second, and it’s great
for adding rhythmic elements to the drone.
You can also use this rhythmic element to create a steady beat—almost like a very organic
and asymmetrically shaped tremolo.
Sweeping the Wide oscillator’s pitch
control from minimum to maximum seems
to pass through the entire range of human
hearing. At maximum settings, you can
barely hear the high-pitch whine—similar
to having a cathode ray tube television
on in the room. (Remember those?) And
because of its range, you can also use the
Wide oscillator as a harmonic counterpart
to Osc1, a companion you can dial in for
extreme, but very musical overtones.
The Demon1 and Demon2 oscillators
tend to create haunting, discordant intervals
or bending, screeching sounds. Both of these
oscillators are enabled with a single volume
control, and pitch is controlled with the
RATINGS
Pros: Unique tonal possibilities. Devastating sonic
potential. Joystick!
DwarfCraft Devices, Satan Oscillate My Metallic Sonatas, $275 (street), dwarfcraftdevices.com
Cons: Limited practicality. Somewhat difficult
learning curve. Somewhat expensive.
Tones
Ease of Use
Build
Value
ultra-cool joystick (left/right for Demon1,
up/down for Demon2). The joystick enables
really detailed and nuanced tweaking. There’s
just enough tension that it will stay put when
you let go, and there’s enough resistance that
you can work the joystick very effectively
with your foot—making the pedal a practical
stage tool once you’ve mastered the techniques and sounds you’ll use the most.
The Verdict
There’s really no way to cover the whole range
of sounds you can get from the SOMMS in
a single review. And describing some of the
more radical tones would take Lovecraft’s pen-
chant for defining the phantasmagorical. To
effectively use the SOMMS, you must have
an open mind, an ear for the unusual, and the
willingness to surrender control in some mea-
sure. You must be willing to explore to find
the tones that work for you, and you need
to be on the hunt for some really unusual
textures to begin with. That’s the draw of this
unit and other tone machines like it—the
unknown, the mysterious, and the occasional
flash of random magic.
